Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Review

Strogg invade your console!

ID Software and Splash Damage have crafted one of the most enjoyable action fests in years with the release of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The game is a prequel to the events of Quake 2 and Quake 4 and covers the invasion of Earth by the evil cybernetic Strogg invaders.

After delighting fans on the PC the game has finally come to the PS 3 and X-Box 360 Consoles.

The gameplay is based on a series of team missions, where players select to play as either the invading aliens or the human defenders. This is not the end of the choices, as each side has several classes ranging from soldiers, recon, engineers, medics, and more each with their own unique weapons and abilities. Players can also alter their load out in a specific class. For example, the human soldier can have a machine gun, rocket launcher, shotgun, or other weapons as their primary weapon. When you need to get down and dirty, the machine gun is often my default choice as between this and my grenades and heavy explosive charges; I can often do what I need to. When the tide of battle changes, I often sacrifice some speed for a rocket launcher, which enables me to destroy large vehicles and defenses from afar.

Missions generally unfold in a trilogy in a specific geographic region and involve various aspects of attacking and/or defending a locale, and dispatching as many enemy forces as you can along the way.

A countdown clock lets you know how long you have to complete a mission and you are constantly updated by the voice of your commanding officer as to your objectives which change during the course of battle.

One recent mission in Africa tasked me with hacking an enemy portal device so we could safely use it to travel to the next objective. The enemy had set up a solid line of defense, so I was forced to improvise by going the long way around, climbing a building, and dropping down on the enemy. The game rewards players with powerups as they gain skills in battle sense, vehicles, and other areas.

Vehicles are a large part of the game, and in this scenario I was able to use a Hummer like vehicle called the Armadillo to drive near the portal and use the mounted Gatling guns to clear the way for my teammates to hack the system.

Once this was done, the next part of the mission took place which whisked us through the portal where we had to infiltrate a Strogg locale and place heavy explosive charges on a key section of the installation.

The fighting was fierce, and this time out, my team was not able to complete the mission which in turn led us to a new mission.